Domestic diagnostic kit to detect 3 viruses together

ANKARA

Flu, COVID-19 and RSV will be examined at the same time with a single kit as upper respiratory tract infections are now “mixed” with each other, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has announced.

Making statements about influenza which has been spreading rapidly and taking a long time to recover from, Koca said that a triple respiratory tract panel will be used to detect flu, COVID-19 and RSV viruses.

“Coronavirus and other upper respiratory tract infections are mixed. Cases of influenza and RSV are observed more,” Koca noted.

“Now, when a patient comes to the hospital with the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, we will have the opportunity to find out whether it is COVID, RSV, influenza A or B, with a domestically produced kit,” the minister explained.

Koca also pointed out the indigenous kit, which will detect which of the three viruses infected the patient, will be ready for use within a month and will be supplied to hospitals.

“I assigned the Presidency of the Turkish Health Institutes to this issue. A domestic multi pathogen test kit will be produced in our country by utilizing domestic opportunities and it will be widely used in a quite short time,” he added.

The disease, which scientists in the U.S. call the “triple epidemic,” which is the result of a combination of COVID, influenza and RSV, has recently been highly contagious among students, while the education in the classes continues with few students.

Reminding that there are closures in China due to COVID again, Koca stated that China has implemented quite strict quarantine rules since the beginning of the pandemic process and that there is no situation in Türkiye that requires such a closure.

“The number of cases hovers around 3,000. I do not think there will be a big increase in the coming period. We will never take measures like in China,” Koca explained.